In the wise words of Jolie Ayana Hernandez...

My daughter amazes me.  I'm not sure if it's "normal" for a baby her age to have so many words in their vocabulary already (and a lot of them she uses together) but I'm very impressed by her.  It's been said that "every child learns at different times and different ways" and I can truly attest to that now that I have 2 kids to compare.  Aleczander's vocabulary and desire to talk developed a little later than most children but he definitely caught up quickly.  At Jolie's age, he was more advanced physically (running, jumping, kicking, catching balls, throwing balls, hitting balls with baseball bat, etc.). I guess it's possible that compared to other children her age, Jolie might be right on track. But compared to what we know, she is a pure genius.  Here is a list of some of words that Jolie has mastered in her short 18 months of life (keep in mind that she can not only identify these things, but say them pretty clearly):

Family:                                                          Animals (with accompanying sounds):
Mommy                                                              Doggie (bow wow)
Daddy                                                                 Cat (meow)
Grandma                                                            Elephant
Grandpa                                                             Tiger (rawr)
Titi                                                                      Cow (moo)
Alec                                                                     Bird
Baby                                                                   Pig (oink)
Emma                                                                 Fish
Abby                                                                   Owl (hoo)
Ava
                                                                                 Sayings:
Body Parts:                                                      Hello
(as she points to each one)                  Bye bye (with a wave of the hand)
Mouth                                                                    Open
Ear                                                                          Go
Hair                                                                        Ouch
Feet                                                                         Kiss
Hands                                                                     Hug
Teeth                                                                      Drink
Tummy                                                                  Thank you
Nose                                                                       Good night (with a kiss)
Nails                                                                       Morning
                                                                                 Pow pow
Food Related:                                                 All done
Water (she loves water)                                 No more (accompanied by a finger gesture)
Juice                                                                      No (has this one down pretty good)
Bread                                                                      There you go
Eggs                                                                        Yes
Cheese                                                                   Again 
Hot dog                                                                 Please
Pizza                                                                      Share (she yells this one at Alec often)
Nugget ("ugget")                                                Boo Boo
Soup                                                                      Hot (in reference to stove, hot water, etc)
Milk                                                                       Outside
Ice cream                                                            Poo Poo
Agua                                                                     Caca
Chip                                                                       Uh-oh
Cookie (her favorite food)                           Sit down
Apple                                                                    Mine 
Banana                                                                 Bless you
Cracker                                                                
                                                                                 TV Related: 
Things:                                                               Blue (Blues Clues)
Pamper                                                                  Oso
Blankie (her pink one, of course)                Mickey Mouse
Fan                                                          
Toy
Trash
Book                                                                                                                                                  
iPad                                                            
Pen (she love to write)                                                            
Light                                                                                               
Shorts                                                        
Chair                                                    
Cup                                                            
Brush                                                    
Soap
Car
Ball
Phone (she's already a phone addict)
Shoes
Bath (her favorite part of the day)
Remote
Socks
Train (says choo choo also)
Keys

Along with all these words, she can almost count to 10 pretty solidly and she is now starting to sing her ABC's.  I'm pretty sure there are some more that I'm missing but these are the most common.  Pretty impressive, huh?  There are also a whole host of commands that she understands and responds to.  She loves books and she loves the iPad.  She knows how to turn it on, open apps, scan through pictures, take pictures and watch videos on it.  She is very thirsty for knowledge and it seems as though she adds a new word to her vocab every day.  She loves to imitate all of us and our actions.  Here is a set of pictures of her copying what Alfred was doing one day during breakfast:

Isn't she the cutest?  Her and Alec fight constantly.  But they have also been found giving each other hugs and kisses without being told to.  I actually want to say that she gives impromptu hugs and kisses to Alec more often than she gives them to me or Alfred.  We affectionately call Jolie "mama" or "mamas" as a nickname sometimes and now Alec has picked up on it too.    He will say something like "come here, mamas" or "don't do that, mamas." It's so cute. I'm glad they have each other.

Alec talks so much that I couldn't even begin to put a full list together. He can have whole conversations about anything and loves to ask a million questions.  If he doesn't know what something is called, he will ask you "what is it?" and he will then get incredibly excited when he learns the new word.  He goes back to school on August 5th as a peer model again.  He is already talking about it and asking about Ms. Vanessa, his teacher. Last school year he was in class for only about 8 weeks.  But he learned so much in those 8 weeks that I am anxious to see what he picks up during a whole school year.

He loves to play hide and go seek right now even though he's not very good at it - he hides under clothes with his butt sticking out or he will laugh hysterically when we are trying to find him.  But we play around and pretend we don't see or hear him for a while (which makes him laugh even harder).  He also tries so hard to be like his daddy and do/say things like him, as pictured here:

Alec told me he was "daddy" and put on some glasses and carried
around my lunchbox (suppose to be Alfred's laptop bag for work)

But don't be fooled by the cuteness.  He is loving and caring but, boy, does he know to use it right.  He will randomly tell me, Alfred or my mom "I love you" accompanied with a hug or kiss right before or after he does something isn't suppose to be doing or before he asks for something like ice cream or candy.  Occasionally we will get a genuine "I love you" with the hug and a kiss.  That always melts my heart.

We spent the 4th of July around town and didn't do too much.  Our day consisted of breakfast at Ihop, a little bit of shopping in the afternoon, BBQ at the house for dinner and some sparklers to end the night.  It was a peaceful and family oriented day.

 

Now that we are in July, I totally take back me saying that the heat here in Arizona isn't so bad since it's a dry heat.  It doesn't matter how humid or dry it is, 118 degrees is 118 degrees!! And it's HOT!!  Most days, I recall the words of my great friend Nate who use to live in Arizona when he once told me "You will step outside and it will feel like everything is on FIRE."  So much truth in that statement.  Also, there are rarely any clouds to help escape from the sun and since it's the desert, trees are far and few between. And the humidity out here has even climbed a little bit to around 25% on some days.  Which is still nothing compared to the 80%+ in the Houston area.  But it's hot none the less. I can't complain too much though.  I've been told many times by people who live here that the 3 months of hell are totally worth it when we get 9 months of heavenly weather. Truth in that statement too.

Well that's pretty much the update.  I must now go an attempt to not melt away or spontaneously combust into flames.